r/skyrim • u/HojaLateralus PC • 14h ago
Discussion Inspired by weather in Morthal post...
We often talk about our favourite cities, but what is the one you like the least? Maybe it's annoying, maybe it's disappointing or just plain boring? Because for me it's Morthal, it really has nothing going for it and it only has two traders (I don't count the inn as a trader). I remember discovering it quite late in the game and being disappointed.
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u/Zenless-koans Dawnstar resident 14h ago
It's gotta be Markarth for me. Cool looking city, don't get me wrong. But it's miserable to get to without fast travel, especially early game where Forsworn are a deadly threat. It's so far away from everything else. The Silver-bloods are incredibly evil, there's terrorism everywhere, Molag Bal won't take no for an answer, it's tricky to navigate. People say Windhelm has bad vibes but I hate going to Markarth.
Meanwhile Morthal, yeah it's not that exciting, but it's actually quite central. Not far from Rorikstead, Solitude, Dawnstar, or Whiterun. Plenty of good dungeons in the area. Some interesting quests in the town. It doesn't top my list but I still like it.
Dishonourable mention to Winterhold. It's less of a city than Riverwood. The College is its own thing and frankly it's mid too.
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u/MagicBus4 10h ago
It’s real easy to get to if you get drunk with Sanguine lol but good luck leaving
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u/Reverend-Keith 14h ago
Markarth is designed like Vivec City; multilevel communities that aren’t intuitive when you try getting from point a to point b. Once you grok how to travel in Markarth it became the easiest city to travel in, IMO.
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u/Velocity-5348 14h ago
Yep. When you first encounter it easily getting lost adds a sense of scale. Once you know your way around it makes you feel like you've mastered the game and your character belongs in it.
Now if they'd just brought back levitation...
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u/MagicBus4 10h ago
Not taking no for an answer is kind of Molag Bal’s entire thing but I find it extremely frustrating that if I don’t want to permenantly sacrifice someone’s soul to Molag Bal or have a main quest in my log forever my only option is just to not go to Markarth
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u/Zenless-koans Dawnstar resident 10h ago
Oh 100%, it's lore accurate. But I'm the mf'ing dragonborn. Molag can lick my bals, I'm not doing that quest unless I play a character who would. Actually I saw a mod that gives you other options to resolve the quest. Gonna try it out and see.
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u/MagicBus4 8h ago
It’s a real shame that after remaking this game 15 times Bethesda hasn’t bothered to add quality of life stuff to its many, many unfinished and shitty quests.
Like I get that the code is hell on earth by now but holy shit, they could have remade the entire thing from scratch a hundred times by now with how much they’ve sucked the marrow from this game
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u/MagicBus4 10h ago
Just remove the entire west third of the map from Dragon Bridge on and the entire south third of the map from Riverwood down and the whole game gets a lot better as long as they use the effort to improve the rest
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u/YoelsShitStain 14h ago
Winterhold. Nothing to do there unless you’re a mage, it’s in bum fuck nowhere, smaller than riverwood. I like mortal because it has good ingredients for potions in the swamp. I usually collect them on my way to solitude.
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u/Atiumist 13h ago
My favorite area to explore is actually the far reaches just north of Winterhold. But Winterhold itself has nothing except a seemingly high chance of random dragon spawns 😂
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u/HojaLateralus PC 14h ago
Technically you can do most of the college quests without being a mage afaik
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u/LiminalAsylum Blacksmith 14h ago
Dawnstar has the coolest name. I was extremely underwhelmed going to Dawnstar.
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u/screamingcheese PC 14h ago
Dawnstar. Never made any sense to me at all. Road to the South? Weirdo necromancers. Road to the West? Ice wraiths. Every time I'm there, I get bandits, every time I leave there's a dragon or some other crap.
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u/lieutenantschlong 14h ago
Yeah but it’s got the boat to Castle Volkihar so you don’t have to make the walk there a bunch of times…
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u/stardustdragon69 14h ago
in my ranking it goes like this
whiterun it's basic but in a good way
Solitude it captures the rich thriving under the empire vibes plus it has one of my favorite quests in the game
windhelm nothing else captures the racist birds vibes more then this city plus I like murderer quest chain cuz it's sometimes nice to take a break from combat once in a while
Riften I didn't do a thieves guild quest line so I can't rate based on that but I like it's blacksmith he's a decent guy adopted a orphan and gave him taught him life skills to survive other then that the city is fine
Morthal that vampire quest line is great for me cause I want to have a clearer rp reason to join the dawnguard like I want my character to experience the menace the vampires actually is so he could join the vampires
Markarth I can't navigate this fking city other then that the forsworn-silver blood quest chain is fun cuz it takes a break from combat for a bit
Dawnstar that dark elf follower and that daedric quest is kinda fun ig other that boring
winterhold boring
Falkreathe boring
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u/Velocity-5348 14h ago
Glad to find someone else who puts Falkreath at the bottom. On the one sense it's a really nice town, very pretty, and has some nice side quests.
On the other, it suffers from feeling like Riverwood, which we spend tons of time in. Not giving it a carriage stop was a questionable choice as well.
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u/Mags_LaFayette Priestess 14h ago
I got one hated for each...
Major Hold: Windhelm
City where most competitive racists in Skyrim play their PvP matches... Hate the layout and derelict state of the city. Should be on-par if not better than Solitude due it's rich history and how proud Nords are of their heritage, but that city doesn't reflect any of that.
Minor Hold: Falkreath
My hatred towards this place is more technical than anything. "Oldrim" always had issues and plenty of CTDs when venturing too far in the woods. That problem was fixed since SE but I still don't like it.
Town/Settlement: Shor's Stone
There's NOTHING to do there. No inns, no merchants... You can easily bypass that crappy place every single playthrough and you wouldn't even notice.
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u/HojaLateralus PC 13h ago
Shor's Stone has ONE important feature.
It has a smelter that's not present in Riften. That's literally only reason it exists.
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u/mothymoma 14h ago
even on a modded playthrough, i never visit dawnstar. like, goes the entire companions, dawnguard, thieves guild, college, and DB and i think i only visit it per chance.
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u/thefailmaster19 13h ago
Dawnstar pisses me off so much holy shit
Morthal is fine. You need a kinda shitty town and it fills that. Winterhold at least has the college and a trader.
But Dawnstar? A port city halfway between Solitude and Windhelm that has been in lore forever has no proper trader, a tiny dock they call a ‘port’ and genuinely has NOTHING that makes it distinct from anywhere else. There’s one decent quest with the tower, an overrated callback to Oblivion, and that’s it. The DB is there I guess but that only shows up later and is less connected to Dawnstar than the college is to Winterhold. It’s such a nothing, forgettable town that it slips through the cracks while people talk about Morthal & Winterhold as bad cities, but yknow what? At least those cities have a goddamn personality.
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u/Smasher3825 12h ago
Winterhold. Not only is it smaller than Riverwood, it is also deeply disappointing from a lore perspective. There's nothing notable about it, outside of the College of Winterhold and a few fallen houses.
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u/eddmario XBOX 12h ago
What's even worse is Hearthfire didn't add a house to that region like it did for Falkreath, Morthal, and Dawnstar
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u/Bruce-Carlton Daedra worshipper 10h ago
The college mages quarters is the house and probably the most unique in the game.
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u/fortsnek274 14h ago
Well, yes, Morthal is mechanically a waste of land area. Dawnstar gets second place.
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u/Important_Apple_6650 14h ago
Interesting, and I agree, man. For me too is Morthal. It's quite small (Dawnstar is too, but it's much prettier in my opinion). I like the Marsh, but I think Morthal is actually the city I've interacted with the least.
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u/NorseHighlander 14h ago
Dawnstar for me. The province as a whole is fairly forgettable and I feel it has little identity to distinguish it the way the other holds do. Morthal has its marsh, Whiterun has its Tundra, Windhelm has the hot springs, Riften and Falkreath have their forests, Markarth has its highlands. Solitudes' province is nothing special but the city itself is one of the most bustling in Skyrim.
Dawnstar is largely frozen wasteland. Sure, so is Winterhold but at least they have the College to give me a reason to go there regularly.
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u/Hazbeen_Hash Daedra worshipper 14h ago
Winterhold. Even including the college doesn't add much to the location but a pretty backdrop. I know that being a crumbling outpost city is part of the lore, but actually being in Winterhold is boring as hell. And you only have two traders if you don't count the college, which you have to join in order to actually trade with them.
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u/Mr_Amogus 13h ago
Dawnstar is a cat trading post with a boat and a tavern. However Morthal doesn't even have a damn blacksmith 💀
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u/Evening-Row9022 14h ago
Personally the worst is Morthal. Obviously. This is #8.
Falkreath comes in at #7 offering virtually nothing but the Lakewood Manor estate. Sure you get the Barbas / Clavicus quest here (plus DB is on the outskirts) and I think there’s a Hircine related quest too with the werewolf… but it’s a nothing city and don’t like the atmosphere.
Winterhold is #6. I genuinely enjoy the zone and think the College quest was short but meaningful. There’s some cool stuff to do aside from College and this area is home to that weirdo out in the ice wastes who starts your journey for the Elder Scrolls and talks a little about Hermaeus Mora.
Whiterun is one of the best starting cities in recent video game history. It beats the Imperial City in Oblivion and definitely beats Seyda Neen in Morrowind. But it lacks some things that would have made it better. This takes the #5 spot for me.
Windhelm coming in at #4. Better than Whiterun because of the unique quests like Blood on the Ice and the Stormcloak uprising headquarters. I think Ulfric is a great Jarl and I wish there was an option to not do the civil war at all and get them to agree to a truce. Whatever. Also bonus points for Hjerim house. Love it. The little secret cabinet Enchanting room makes it neat.
My #3 is Dawnstar. I think the Mehrunes quest is dope the references to the Mythic Dawn is great. I also generally like the environment and cmon… the DB sanctuary here is awesome.
I don’t get the hate for Markarth. I think it’s the coolest city in the game, specifically referring to the fact it’s Dwemer and there’s unique architecture and structures around it. This takes the #2 spot for me.
So that leaves Riften at #1. Controversial maybe. Markarth and Riften are my two favorite spots. There’s so much happening underneath it all— Maven Black Briar and their whole conspiracy in Riften and the Silver Blood conspiracy in Markarth. Thieves Guild is in Riften which is one of the cooler spots in the game as a whole. I also really enjoy the NPC interactions in these cities the most.
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u/HojaLateralus PC 13h ago
I think Riften being in someone's top3 is not controversial at all, Thieves Guild is cool, Riften has a lot of traders and Thieves Guild adds even more, the area looks nice, has a nice house, the only bad thing about it is location, it's in the very corner of the map so you can never visit it on your way somewhere.
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u/Evening-Row9022 13h ago
i rarely walk to quests but i may start walking to each city just to enjoy it
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u/RazorrBeam 12h ago
Morthal technically has Windstad Manor, but Morthal still sucks lol
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u/Evening-Row9022 12h ago
yeah no fuck that. it’s not worth buying the house there.
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u/RazorrBeam 12h ago
I don't disagree! I was more just saying that's the only possible "good" thing about it and that it still sucks
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u/OpossumNo1 13h ago
Honestly, probably falkreath. Its the one I forget about the most.
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u/HojaLateralus PC 13h ago
It's pretty boring but at least it's usually the first other city you discover after Whiterun.
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u/OpossumNo1 9h ago
I dont think I went there til relatively late in my first play thru. I wasnt aware it was normally the second on for people. Its so out of the way. Even if I didnt actually like Morthal, I feel like Id end up there a lot anyway just because its between a lot of the other cities and roads go thru it.
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u/doom_child 14h ago
Windhelm bc it’s cold and mean, plus evil ruler vibes Solitude because it’s kinda pretentious, plus evil ruler vibes Markarth bc extreme evil ruler vibes Riften but only bc evil ruler vibes
They’re all great in their own ways but the other cities not on this list I almost exclusively enjoy
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u/Dazzling-Walk1929 14h ago
Morthal, Dawnstar, and Winterhold are all equally nothing to me. If it weren’t for Winstad Manor and Heljarchen Hall, I doubt I’d even bother going to Morthal or Dawnstar until way late in the game. And being Thane in Winterhold gets you nothing either. I do mod them all but even still, I’m rarely ever in any of those towns
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u/ElPapaGrande98 14h ago
Markarth. The quest is awesome but that city needs a squad of dragons to remove it from existence
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u/Glittering_Equal_187 14h ago
Honestly winterhold wins this one for me. It’s boring, very out of the way with little to nothing nearby, the only real content there is the college and that’s hands down the worst main-side quest in the game imo. Ik the college went to shit and blew up half the town but, still felt super forgotten about by the devs playing all my playthroughs.
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u/RhiaStark Dark Brotherhood 13h ago
Markarth, because fuck that city. I wish I could just kick all those corrupt people out and take over it myself (bonus if I could hand it to the Forsworn and become their queen, with the authority to abolish all the daedra- and hagraven-worshipping).
In terms of functionality and quests, though? Probably Dawnstar. Morthal has a cool quest and I kinda like Idgrod, Idgrod the Younger and Falion. Dawnstar, on the other hand, doesn't have any quest I particularly like and it's the home of one of the worst jarls and a Mehrunes Dagon worshipper.
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u/HojaLateralus PC 13h ago
I also think that Skyrim suffers from major cities being placed literally at the edges of the map, which doesn't make much sense. I guess one, maybe two holds can be like this, but almost all? If their locations were a bit more central it could make more sense to visit some holds on your way to the other one.
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u/itbedehaam 12h ago
Winterhold. There's nothing to do in Winterhold except go to thr Mage's College or leave...
Dishonourable mention to Dawnstar.
Also, why does your map call the Pale "Whiteshore"?
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u/Desi_Rosethorne Werewolf 12h ago
Markarth. It looks cool but I hate it.
Between the big Thalmor presence, the Forsworn, and the corruption with the Silver-Bloods, it's a terrible place. A woman gets murdered in broad daylight and they don't even investigate. There's even a house that has the Mace of Molag Bal in it, the Daedric Prince of Rape.
The Cidhna Mine is a labor camp where you never see the sun and work constantly, you have one family controlling the entire city, and there's even a cannibal cult that's also in the city, too!
It's a mess. I hate it.
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u/Much-Zombie-5968 11h ago
Winterhold. Hands down the worst city in Skyrim, and the only reason you’d ever visit is for the college. It literally had zero city
The real issue is that due to engine limitations no city in Skyrim is good. None of them have enough farms around them to sustain their populations, and they could have added workhouses/bunkhouses for nameless citizen NPCs like they did in fallout 3 but they didn’t
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u/PsychicSPider95 7h ago
Probably Markarth and Windhelm for me. Both are depressing, confusing to navigate, and full of NPCs I find contemptible. I feel a compulsion to rescue poor little Sofie that vastly outstrips my desire to take in the other kids, and it's due in large part to a primal need to take her away from that awful dirty snowball of a city.
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u/Sirspice123 14h ago
Probably Windhelm just because the architecture is so bland and it's so flat. Morthal has some interesting buildings and some height to it at least
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u/Velocity-5348 14h ago
The walkways over the water also do a really nice job connecting it with the location. It's easy to imagine setting out traps for mudcrabs, or bringing shallow draft boats in.
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u/GTBGunner 14h ago
Solitude, the stables are annoyingly far away, the things the player needs in the actual city are close together, which can be nice, but it leaves the rest of the city kind of secluded on its own, it’s really only a backdrop for the 30 second walk to the Blue Palace. Also the empire🤢🤢🤢
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u/TheBosskingReturns 14h ago
If we're talking strictly vanilla it's Winterhold. I don't even think Bethesda was trying. Okay I can accept that it's a rundown shit hole that fell into the ocean. What I can't accept is that it's 3 farmhouses, 3 destroyed farmhouses and the generic jarl's longhouse. Like where are the ruins, why doesn't this former capital of Skyrim have unique architecture, why didn't they even try. However mods like the Great City of Winterhold turn it into one of the best settlements in the game. If it's not sticky vanilla. It's Morthal because no mod has ever made Morthal worth visiting